Custom 2004 Chevrolet Colorado - Coloradical

Blessed by GM, Built by a Fanatic

Trent Van Arsdalen has been working with custom vehicles for the past 16 years. In that time, he's run the gamut of all aspects of building and showing custom trucks and cars. His expertise, however, lies in his talents as an interior-design guru. Over the years, Trent has been responsible for showing vehicles in 14 states and has taken home many awards for his hard work and thoughtful interiors. Last year, Trent was the lucky recipient of an '04 Chevy Colorado Extended Cab, complete with the new Vortec 3500 3.5L inline I-5 engine. His goal was to turn the truck around in record time to debut it at the 2004 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

Once the truck was delivered to Trent's Garage Ma-Hall (his massive 2,450 square-foot two-story facility) at Trent's Trick Upholstery in Baltimore, Ohio, the fun began. Using the extensive customer base of McCullough Public Relations, Trent was able to bring all kinds of big players in the automotive aftermarket on board with his project, which made getting the items he needed to make the truck's design become a reality happen faster than he ever imagined. With plenty of the needed products already in hand, Trent started reworking the truck in anticipation of the SEMA Show that was drawing closer by the day. With all the tools he needed to finish the truck, Trent began the insane two-month building spree that turned an otherwise stock Colorado into the showpiece that wound up winning two very prestigious awards at SEMA.

To start, the door-handle areas were reworked to allow use of '00 Corvette handles. Once that modification was complete, the truck was handed over to Lynch Concepts for a total of 10 days, where the truck was transformed using the Keller Designs rendering Trent had supplied. Amazingly, the crew at Lynch Concepts really threw down and had the whole truck turned around faster than anyone could have believed. While the truck was at the body shop, Trent was busier than he'd ever been, reworking the door panels and building the center console. The console would be installed between a pair of Interior Supply & Services custom bucket seats that Trent had painstakingly upholstered to work flawlessly with all the other interior modifications.

The truck's suspension was then reworked at Cyrus's Suspension Shack using Air Ride Technologies' components, along with tubular upper control arms from Progressive Automotive. The truck was lowered more than 6 inches from stock in total, without any cutting of the chassis. The new suspension system is truly a bolt-on affair. When the truck came out of Cyrus's, it possessed a new attitude, due to its new altitude, and Trent was eager to move onto the next phase of the truck's development.

What was next? Trent cut a gaping hole into the roof as the perfect opening for an Inalfa moonroof to be installed. With that accomplished, he moved on to complete the installation of the truck's new interior, while the truck's stereo system was installed and wired by Dave Planton using Scosche parts and electronic components from Kicker, Dual, Rosen Entertainment, Rostra Controls, and Subtomix.

At this point, Trent had a truck on his hands with a completed interior that would make a street-rod owner green with envy, as well as a truck that matched the original rendering in colors. The things that he didn't have, though, were sending him over the edge, with only days to go before the truck was to be loaded onto a trailer and taken to Las Vegas. Ultimately, Trent ended up installing the truck's custom engine cover he'd built and loaded the truck for the trip without custom wheels or front brakes. He made a leap of faith in trusting the companies that had faithfully supported his project build would be there for him at the end of his journey. Luckily, four 20-inch Bonspeed wheels were sitting in Las Vegas when he arrived. He installed the rest of the Stainless Steel Brake Corporation braking components and bolted up the specially built new Bonspeed wheels only hours before driving the truck into the Las Vegas Convention Center to showcase his newest creation.

When we asked Trent Van Arsdalen why he built the Coloradical in the first place, he said: "It was the hottest new truck to hit the truck market, and I wanted to be one of the first to build one. I bleed Chevy orange and have been driving them all my life. I've got about eight Chevrolet vehicles right now, and building the Coloradical is a sweet accomplishment I had never experienced to this degree until now."